I am looking for contributors, collaborators and critiques

[Emmett]

I am normally very formal when posting on web boards, but I am in the same position as a great many of the members of this web board. I have published a 156 page game in PDF format. The project is complete and available at www.theartifact.net

I am looking for people that would be interested in contributing, criticizing and collaborating on this project. I, like many others in this community do this for the love of role playing, and have little money to offer.

I charge for access to the website in an attempt to pay for hosting, but I am willing to wave any charges to anyone who would like to check things out.

This is what I'm interested in.
1. Artwork
2. Writers
3. Playtesters
4. Constructive Criticism (not just bashing)

I would ideally like to make a location for players of this game to hang out and build a little community around that, but that will definitely be limited to those who are willing to splurge ten dollars.

I would also mention that I am a poor speller (I'm dyslexic) and despite my best efforts, that does shine through with relative frequency. So the answer is "No, I'm not surprised that I misspelled that."

[Matt Machell]

If you're looking for constructive criticism, then Indie Game Design forum might be a better place to post. Be ready to answer some difficult questions though ;-)

-Matt

[Mike Holmes]

Assuming that one is interested, how does one ask to come on board? Would you like responses here? Or would you prefer private mail? Or something else?

Mike

[Emmett]

If I were to post in the design forum, wouldn't I need to make the game available to everybody on the forum? I'm not ready to do that. What I would rather do is perform a mini-interview (painless I assure you) of those that are interested by email. If they seemed to have a drive to contribute, I would give them a membership. It would be an honor system past that.

I do have to warn anybody that I can be stubborn and I always stick to my purpose, some contributors have found that frustrating. I do reject material, and I may not take every suggestion. On the other hand I've seen some of the work that a number of the members here have done and I feel the Forge has a lot of talent in it.

In answer to the question of how to contact me, email is fine. You can email me at emmett.obrian@theartifact.net

Let me know what you are interested in doing. If you have a playtesting group, or if you are a writer or illustrator etc. The more information you send in the initial email, the less I have to ask questions.

[Andy Kitkowski]

If I were to post in the design forum, wouldn't I need to make the game available to everybody on the forum? I'm not ready to do that. What I would rather do is perform a mini-interview (painless I assure you) of those that are interested by email.

Another idea is to just post fragments of the system, state what you're trying to do with them, and ask how they stand up. THat way you don't have to open the whole game up to scrutiny.

[Emmett]

I understand what your getting at, but the game is functional and it's engine is complete. rules may be able to be fine tuned, but I think the best way to reveal that is to actually play.

I should clarify my statement. By saying that I am "not ready" to distribute the game to everybody in the forum, I mean that it is not in my interest to do so. For one, the rules section of the book is over twenty pages long and that file alone is over a meg and a half. The whole book is ten megs. Not only do I not want to go through the effort of transferring that, I don't think the webmaster of this site would be too happy with me.

[Andy Kitkowski]

I understand what your getting at, but the game is functional and it's engine is complete. rules may be able to be fine tuned, but I think the best way to reveal that is to actually play.

Ahhh, I see.

RPGNet has a Playtester forum (forum.rpg.net).  Have you tried there yet?

[Emmett]

The game has been playtested for a very long time so I am less interested in playtesters than in new ideas and perspectives. I've run this game for so long with my friends and testers that they look at it as complete.

The biggest interest in playtesters for me is how the story would translate to someone who is completely unfamiliar with it. I've started fresh groups several times and each time it has helped to flesh out the story even more. The problem I'm now faced with is I've run out of connections for fresh perspectives.

What I really need is people that are going to take the ball and run in a direction that I wasn't expecting.